The Seattle newborn army, also known as Riley's Coven, was an army of newborn vampires created by Victoria but controlled by Riley Biers. Riley was the only authority figure the newborns knew. They lived in and around the city of Seattle and existed as a coven for less than one year. Victoria had created this army for the sole purpose of getting past the Cullens and the Uley pack to kill Bella Swan.

In their final organization as a newborn army, they became an illegal creation. None of the newborns knew of the Volturi's laws that prohibited their lifestyle. While Riley knew of the newborns' ultimate fate as an army, none of the other newborns were aware of this fact until a few days before the attack that ended in the demise of the coven at the hands of the Cullens, the pack and the Volturi. There are three survivors of this coven; Fred, Steve, and Shelly, who went on to become nomads; none of them were present for the attack against the Cullens.

Contents

History

Victoria was originally part of a nomadic coven that consisted of herself, her mate James, and their friend Laurent. When the nomads passed through Forks, they found the Cullen family and a human named Bella, who was Edward Cullen's lover. When James realized this, he found Edward's protectiveness and the presence of Alice Cullen - a prey that he had previously lost - so entertaining that he decided to hunt Bella for sports, and had Victoria help him find information about her. But James was killed when he made his attempt on her life. Victoria, feeling alone and vulnerable, quickly ran away from Forks.

Upon arriving in Oregon (Seattle in the movie), she felt vulnerable without a protector and so changed a young college student named Riley Biers and won his heart with lies about her background story and her feelings, telling him that she was in love with him and that she was being chased by enemies (the Cullens). He could tell from her voice that she was truly terrified and easily returned her feelings. She started creating more newborns for protection - Diego, Fred and Raoul were added into her collection. Because newborns were highly temperamental and almost uncontrollable, they would kill each other for sports or for fighting for blood. Raoul's group was often the one who started those fights; Riley would then be forced to replace the falllen ones and the cycle would start over again.

When Victoria sensed Edward coming for her life, she ran away to Texas, where she escaped his track, and encountered a small coven with newborn vampires. This short encounter gave her an idea, and she decided to use her newborns to make an army and exact revenge on Edward by killing his mate, Bella. Wanting backup plans, she traced Laurent, who had relocated to Denali, and extracted information about the Cullens' powers and weaknesses, then sent him back to check if Bella was still under their protection partly hoping that he would be killed by the Cullens and partly to find out if Bella was still under the family's protection. After finding out about Bella being alone in Forks, Laurent never reported again. She went to investigate and planned to kill Bella on her own, until Sam Uley's pack of werewolves came across her and chased her away. She made more attempts to get past the wolves, but when the Cullens finally returned, she realized her solo attempts were up, and put all of her focus on her army, and started creating more of them. Bree Tanner was added into the collective on March 11, 2006.

The newborns drew attention to themselves with their murders.

Though the creations went into high gear, so did the murder rates in Seattle as the newborns relentlessly terrorized the city at night, only keeping themselves hidden during the day due to the lies made up by Riley and Victoria about sunlight and wooden stakes being deadly to vampires. Though they had kept most of them in the dark, some newborns had discovered the sun's effect on them: Doug was the first of this discovery, and later Adam, but they were killed by Victoria to keep the rest from finding out. Riley used their deaths to strengthen the newborns' belief in vampiric lore. Two of the newborns, Shelly and Steve, however, discovered the secret and escaped from the army as a couple. Riley and Victoria used the excuse to fool the other newborns as well.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Riley getting the newborns' attention.

Victoria sent Riley to Forks to retrieve an object with Bella's scent, saying that by finding Bella, they would find the Cullens. He passed this knowledge on to the newborns. She planned to add more numbers, but Riley thought against the idea since adding new vampires often stirred things up for the rest of the army. When Jane and the other Volturi guards found Victoria and Riley, they offered her a five-day limit to fulfill her army's "task" before making a decision.

Diego and Bree fell in love in this period, and together, they discovered that sunlight only made vampires sparkle. Diego told Riley about his discovery about the Volturi's visit, and he was tormented to death by Victoria for the knowledge. Bree was later led to believe that Diego went with Victoria to observe the Cullens.

Riley then persuaded the soldiers to stop killing each other and start working together to fight against the Cullens, and planned to attack in five days. They then spent the coming four days practicing their fighting skills. On the final day, Riley told the soldiers a story about vampires being able to roam in daylight four days in a year to motivate them to attack during the day.

The army followed Bella's scent to Forks, split in two groups to surprise the Cullens, and ended up walking into a fatal trap. One of the newborns, Fred, did not believe Riley's words, and secretly took off for survival.

Eclipse

The Cullens had been monitoring the situation in Seattle, and allied with a local shape-shifterpack to combat the army when they realized it was coming for them. To protect Bella from danger, Edward and Jacob hid her in the mountains. Victoria and Riley, however, were not fooled, and they found Bella's hiding spot while the army battled the other Cullens and the wolves. Riley died at the hands of a wolf named Seth Clearwater and, seconds later, Victoria met her end at Edward's hands and teeth.

At the end of the fight, the entire army was slaughtered except for Bree Tanner, who willingly surrendered after realizing that her mate, Diego, was dead days before the battle. The Volturi showed up after the battle was over and Felix, one of the Volturi guard, executed her after Jane determined that she was a criminal regardless of her knowledge of the law and the Cullens' willingness to give her asylum.

Members

Victoria: The leader and founder of the army with the power of enhanced self-preservation. She initially built the army for protection after her mate, James, was killed by the Cullens, but later turned it into an active army with the purpose of getting past the Cullens and the Uley pack to kill Bella Swan; killed by Edward Cullen during the battle.

Riley Biers: Victoria's second-in-command and puppet. He was chosen by Victoria to become her bodyguard, and used lies to earn his trust and devotion. Riley operated the army's nutritional needs and eventually battle strategies against the Cullens; killed by Seth Clearwater during the battle.

Raoul: A group leader with the power of enhanced leadership, which allowed him to gain followers and lead the aggressive vampires into battle; killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack during the battle.

Kristie: A manipulative group leader of the female newborns; killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack during the battle.

Bree Tanner: 3 month-old newborn and Diego's mate; the Cullens spared her life due to her unwillingness to fight and offered her asylum in exchange for her surrender. She was eventually executed by Felix after Jane declared her to be a criminal.

Kevin: Raoul's second-in-command. He was recruited by Riley at Raoul's suggestion; killed by Emmett Cullen during the battle.

Casey: Raoul's underling, only known as "Spider-Man" or "Spider-Man kid" to Bree. He was recruited by Riley at Raoul's suggestion; killed by Sara moments before the battle.

Jen: Kristie's second-in-command; killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack during the battle.

Sara: Kristie's underling. She only followed Kristie's gang because she preferred hers than Raoul's: killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack during the battle.

Warren: A newborn killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack during the battle.

Logan: A newborn killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack during the battle.

Heather: A newborn killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack during the battle.

Jim: A newborn killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack during the battle.

Dean: A newborn killed by the Cullens and the Uley pack during the battle.

There were at least six unnamed members present at the battle site.

Past members

Shelly: Escaped with her mate, Steve, after discovering that sunlight did not harm vampires.

Steve: Escaped with his mate, Shelly, after discovering that sunlight did not harm vampires.

Doug: A newborn killed by Victoria and Riley for being the first to discover sunlight's true effect on vampires.

Adam: A newborn killed by Victoria and Riley for discovering sunlight's true effect on vampires.

Diego: Riley's most trusted newborn and Bree's newfound mate; he was killed by Victoria and Riley for discovering sunlight's effects on vampires.

Fred: A member gifted with the power of physical repulsion; escaped before the battle. His escape brought about the downfall of the army, though no one thought about him at the time.

There were originally over twenty-two newborn vampires (including the ones that had been "lost to the sun"), but overtime, they fought and killed one another and eventually narrowed down to nineteen, before the engagement with the Cullens, including Riley and Bree. They also had a red-haired vampire who was also "lost to the sun".

Note

While the army was mostly consisted of troubled teens and youngsters in the novels, it was mostly consisted of people regardless of age and race in the movie.